I get up in the morning looking for an adventure. — George Foreman

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#34: Find a new school for Will

We usually keep this part of our lives private, but we just made a change so big you’ll find out about it even if we don’t say anything.

This is part of our 100 Things in 2016 challenge. Here’s the full list.

We love our son. Immensely. And we want to give him every opportunity to grow up to be a happy, healthy adult. But he has some emotional demons standing in his way, and he needs help to get past them. More and different help than we can offer, and at different times than we can offer it.

With the help of some compassionate professionals here in Portland, we found a school that’s perfectly suited to help him with these challenges. It’s called the Sandhill Center, it’s located near Albuquerque, and he’ll be spending the next 12-18 months there, with professionals that can help him learn to overcome the obstacles in his life, and we’ll be supporting him both from afar (lots phone and video calls) and in person (we visit every six weeks).

We spent the whole day at Sandhill yesterday, and were consistently amazed by the warmth and compassion of the staff. We spent a couple of hours being educated on their methods and philosophies, and the more time we spent there, the more right this place seemed for him. We had been expecting something like a boarding school, but the actual feel is more like a family home. Will was terrified in the car on the way there, but by the end of the day he was happy and excited, and only a little sad to see us go. He joked with us: “you can cancel my return ticket now!”

This might seem sudden to you, but it’s had a long run-up. We’ve tried three different schools, homeschooling mixed with private tutors, and two counselors, but Sandhill is head-and-shoulders above all of them in terms of their capability and level of support. This isn’t the sort of thing we would do lightly, so we ask that you please just trust us that this is exactly the right place for him to fill his emotional toolbox.

Also, prepare for lots of New Mexico posts. We’re going to be down there a lot.